Παρασκευή, 4 Απριλίου 2014

Report from Bulgaria: The years of transition in Bulgaria from the totalitarian regime by Evgeni

Mass
privatisation - the biggest facturies and resources felt into
possesion of the former communist party leaders, which became wild
capitalists and like ones, they immediately sold part of them to big
western corporations and rest they just led to bankruptcy and sold
them for scrap, leaving all workers behind with no job.

Organized
crime - when the transition started, the old Militia fell apart - the
powerful police machine with tens of thousands of members, was no
longer needed. The former police officers had no job and because of
thei represion training they formed wide spread organized crime
groups. They started widespread blackmailing, kidnapping, tourturing,
extortion and so on. All the current huge insurance and financial
companies in Bulgaria emerged from these groups. So did our previous
prime minister. While the current minister came from the former
totalitarian party leaders, who sold the country for no money to
western companies.

Western
proraganda - the Soviet propaganda was totally replaced by the
western one. The word ''communist' became ofensive, the shamans of
the free market ënlightened the people of the "new gods" -
the foreign investors, for whom we needed to make the sacrifice of
mass privatisation. The result was that 3 million people vanished
from the country. 1 million died from poverty and preventable
deceases, 1 million emigrated and 1 million were never born.

Recent
protests - the reason

All
those processes lead us to the condition of the poorest country in
the EU. This naturally resulted in social unrest. There were actually
such moods before, but because of the propaganda, the protests were
aiming for more capitalism. This did not result in anything good, and
therefore it did not last long.

Last
year was the first widespread rise against the results of capitalism
and EU membership. It started against the Electrical companies, who
went through privatisation.

In
Bulgaria, the whole electrical market is divided between 3 companies,
each of them controling as a monopol part of the country. The bills
became unbearable to people - in some places the bills equalled the
average salary. This situation sparked spontaneous social riots in a
couple of cities and spread all across the country.

In
Varna - the biggest city on the coast line of Bulgaria with
population aroung 400 000 people, nearly half of them went out on the
street. This was the biggest riot in the history of the city. It was
not organized by any party or union. The protest soon turned violent,
as protestors across the country started burning the buildings and
cars of those electrical companies.

The
poverty and depression caused victims also. 12 people set themselves
on fire. One of them - Plamen Goranov (a 36 year old man) set himself
on fire in front of the municipal building in Varna, holding a
transperant against the city authorities and the local mafia
structure "TIM". It is still arguable whether he suicided
or somebody killed him. After more than one year from then, the
police are still hiding the video from the incident.

After
that incident, the protest became even more powerful with demands for
change of the entire political system, revision of the privatisation
from the transition and nationalizing of the most important private
sectors.

The
center-right government and few mayors of cities resigned. This
situation was benefit for the bulgarian socialist party who focused
people's attention to the upcoming elections as only possible
solution to their problems. Of course, they won the elections and
forgot their promises.

All
they did was transfer the power and wealth from the previous criminal
group to the new one. They didn't nationalize anything and didn't do
anything to change the overall social situation in Bulgaria. All they
did to maintain the power, was to distribute a one-time money support
to the retired in the amount of about 15 Euro for Christmas.

The
new "socialist" government only caused people's anger again
- this time the protest were anti-communist and dominated by the
biggest oposition parties. They took part mainly in the capital -
Sofia, where there were clashes with the police, but the government
did not resign.

The
only one interesting part of that second protest wave which took part
last summer, was the occupation of the universities in the couple of
cities. The occupation was leftist in its methods and in some of its
demands. They asked, not only for the resign of the gouvernment but
for direct democracy and solidary economy. Badly, when they get off
the tracks of the mainstream protest, the media stopped their support
for the students so the public backed down from them and the
occupation ended without success. After the fall of the student
occupation, the opposition took full control over the protest and
transformed it into a pure struggle between the major left and right
political parties and into a prelude to the upcoming european
elections. To completely overthrow any social an democratic
tendencies among the people and to gain some votes, the neo-nazi
parties with the support of the faschist football hooligans
organization began anti-islamic and anti-turkish demonstrations wich
lead to a destruction of islamic temples. The immigrant wave from
Syria was also used by the nazi parties like Ataka, NFSB and VMRO
together with the street skinhead organizations like Blood And Honor
and National Resistance. They united with each other and organized
numberous demonstrations against immigrants. After these
demonstrations, there was a wave of street violence against
immigrants and imigrant look-a-like people which lead to dozens
people put in hospital and one in coma. The weak and unorganized
resistance against racism and fascism in nationalistic Bulgaria was
unable to fight against these crimes and the result is that they
actually have popular support even from the apolitical people which
are the biggest part of the society.

Never
the less, and beside the situation in Bulgaria influated by the very
heavy iheritance from the totalitarian regime and the rise of the
nationalism, the protests maked way for new left movements. During
the last year only, a social centers were created in every major city
in the country. These social centers are incubators for new social
movements, unknown untill then in Bulgaria. This is the place where
the old communist and anarchist organizations meet the new wave of
radical lefts emerged from the riots on the streets. This interaction
brought to the creation of network between the cities, organizing
demonstrations and projects together.

Our
main goal as activist is the social revolution not only in Bulgaria,
but in the Balkans and the world. That's why we make connections and
visits with our neigbhoring countries, seeking for a common frame to
organize our struggle.